零售业的大灾难是关闭旗舰店
零售业的大灾难是关闭旗舰店
NEW YORK — It used to be considered the retailer's crown jewel — a large format store on a swank corridor that showed off the best of what a brand had to offer.
纽约——它曾经被认为是零售商的皇冠上的宝石——一个位于华丽走廊上的大型商店，展示了一个品牌所能提供的最好的东西。
But now the so-called flagship store is disappearing from high-profile shopping thoroughfares like Manhattan's Madison Avenue and Chicago's Magnificent Mile because of skyrocketing rents and the shift to online shopping.
但如今，由于租金飙升以及向网购的转变，所谓的旗舰店正在从曼哈顿的麦迪逊大道(Madison Avenue)和芝加哥的壮丽大道(Magnificent Mile)等知名购物大道上消失。
Over the last year or so, Gap, Tommy Hilfiger, Lord & Taylor and Polo Ralph Lauren have closed their flagship stores on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue. Abercrombie announced in May that it was closing three more of its big locations — an Abercrombie store in Milan, an Abercrombie store in Fukuoka, Japan and a Hollister-branded store in Manhattan's SoHo area. The announcement came after the teen retailer shut down flagships in Hong Kong and Copenhagen.
在过去一年左右的时间里，Gap、汤米•希尔费格(Tommy Hilfiger)、Lord & Taylor和拉尔夫•劳伦(Polo Ralph Lauren)都关闭了位于曼哈顿第五大道的旗舰店。今年5月，Abercrombie宣布将关闭另外三家大型门店——米兰的一家Abercrombie门店、日本福冈的一家Abercrombie门店和曼哈顿SoHo区的一家霍利斯特(hollister)品牌门店。此前，这家青少年零售商关闭了香港和哥本哈根的旗舰店。
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Other retailers are reimagining the flagship concept instead of abandoning it altogether. Nike, for instance, opened a massive store on Fifth Avenue late last year that doesn't have any cash registers. It lets shoppers see details of items displayed on a mannequin by scanning the QR code and then having those items delivered to a fitting room or a designated pickup spot. Levi Strauss & Co.'s new flagship in Manhattan's Time Square features larger dressing rooms with call buttons and tailors who can add trims and patches to customers' jeans.
其他零售商正在重新构思这一旗舰概念，而不是完全放弃它。例如，耐克(Nike)去年年底在第五大道开了一家大型商店，店里没有任何收银机。通过扫描二维码，购物者可以看到展示在人体模型上的商品细节，然后把这些商品送到试衣间或指定的取货点。李维斯公司(Levi Strauss & Co.)位于曼哈顿时代广场(Time Square)的新旗舰店设有更大的试衣间，里面有呼叫按钮和裁缝，可以为顾客的牛仔裤添加装饰和补丁。
Those still clinging to the old concept, however, are having a harder time. The latest victim could be Barneys New York, which opened its 10-story Madison Avenue store in 1993 and became a cultural icon in luxury shopping but now risks closure. High rents and a dramatic shift toward online shopping are pressuring it to evaluate restructuring options, including possible bankruptcy, according to a source close to the matter who asked to remain anonymous because the discussions are confidential.
然而，那些仍然坚持旧观念的人日子不太好过。最新的受害者可能是纽约巴尼百货公司(Barneys New York)，该公司于1993年在麦迪逊大道(Madison Avenue)开设了10层楼高的门店，成为奢侈品购物领域的文化偶像，但现在面临倒闭的风险。据一位不愿透露姓名的消息人士称，高昂的租金和向网上购物的急剧转变，正迫使该公司评估重组方案，包括可能的破产。
Joseph Aquino, who runs his namesake real estate services firm, says the days of the shop-til-you drop mentality on Madison Avenue popularized by the HBO popular series of the 1990s "Sex in the City" are over.
约瑟夫·阿基诺(Joseph Aquino)经营着他的同名房地产服务公司，他表示，上世纪90年代HBO的热门连续剧“欲望都市”(Sex In The City)在麦迪逊大道上流行起来的那种“逛街”(shop-to-you drop)的时代已经结束了。
"She was 45 and now she is 65... She isn't shopping like she was 45," Aquino said. "We are in the phase where a lot of younger shoppers don't want to go the high street. They sit around and buy online and that's what we are fighting against."
“她45岁，现在65岁了……她不像45岁时那样购物了。“我们正处在一个阶段，许多年轻的购物者不想去商业街。他们无所事事，在网上购物，而这正是我们所反对的。”
The concept of a flagship store is more than a century old and used to be limited to retailers' biggest store — one in their first or most prominent location. But in the last 20 years, a flagship store frenzy took hold and retailers from Gap to H&M looked at them as a must-have shrine to their brands, opening multiple flagships in multiple locations. Not only that but they were willing to pay exorbitant sums of money to showcase their merchandise in luxury corridors.
旗舰店的概念已有一个多世纪的历史，过去仅限于零售商最大的商店——第一家或位置最突出的商店。但在过去20年里，一股旗舰店热潮席卷了各大品牌，从Gap到H&M的零售商都把它们视为自己品牌的必购圣地，在多个地点开设了多家旗舰店。不仅如此，他们还愿意花高价在豪华走廊上展示自己的商品。
